This came across my desk this week and, unfortunately, I cannot find out who actually wrote it, since it was passed along by so many. If any of you know, please let me know, so I can properly thank the writer! For now, just enjoy!

TECH SUPPORT A young woman who submitted the tech support message below (about her relationship with her husband) presumably did it as a joke. Then she got a reply which was way too good to keep to herself. The tech support people’s love advice was hilarious and genius!

THE QUERY

Dear Tech Support,

Last year I upgraded from Boyfriend 5.0 to Husband 1.0 and noticed a distinct slowdown in overall system performance, particularly in the flower and jewelry applications, which operated flawlessly under Boyfriend 5.0.

In addition, Husband 1.0 uninstalled many other valuable programs, such as Romance 9.5 and Personal Attention 6.5, and then installed undesirable programs such as: NBA 5.0, NFL 3.0 and Golf Clubs 4.1. Conversation 8.0 no longer runs and House cleaning 2.6 simply crashes the system.

Please note that I have tried running Nagging 5.3 to fix these problems, but to no avail.

What can I do?

Signed,

Desperate.

The response (that came weeks later out of the blue)

Dear Desperate,

First keep in mind, Boyfriend 5.0 is an Entertainment Package, while Husband 1.0 is an operating system. Please enter command: Ithoughtyouloved me.HTML and try to download Tears 6.2.

Do not forget to install the Guilt 3.0 update. If that application works as designed, Husband 1.0 should then automatically run the applications Jewelry2.0 and Flowers 3.5.

However, remember, overuse of the above application can cause Husband 1.0 to default to Grumpy Silence 2.5, Happy Hour 7.0, or Beer 6.1. Please note that Beer 6.1 is a very bad program that will download the Farting and Snoring Loudly Beta version. Whatever you do, DO NOT, under any circumstances, install Mother-In- Law 1.0 as it runs a virus in the background that will eventually seize control of all your system resources.

In addition, please, do not attempt to re-install the Boyfriend 5.0 program. These are unsupported applications and will crash Husband 1.0.

In summary, Husband 1.0 is a great program, but it does have limited memory and cannot learn new applications quickly. You might consider buying additional software to improve memory and performance. We recommend: Cooking 3.0.

In my travels across country, I have run into many signs.

Not omens, by the way, but road signs or signs posted on buildings, restaurants, theaters, etc. I’m always amazed at the imaginative ways the English language is used. Here are some you just can’t help laughing at.

The sign on the left is a favorite, since I’m from Brooklyn and it’s a hard place to forget!

The one on the right is a sample of Dutch humor. Great, isn’t it?

I came across the next two recently.

The first one (left) was in Massachusetts. Makes you wonder whether you’re coming or going.

The second was on a rural dirt road in Vermont. Not a soul around. Seriously?

The next five are just for fun!

I got a great response from my last blog on word play so I thought I’d try another!

Collective nouns are names for a collection or a number of people or things. For example, some common ones are group, herd, flock, or bunch.

I browsed the Net and found these great ones from various sites. Many of these make a welcome change from the ordinary ones we usually see. As writers, these can enrich your story and even add a chuckle or two. Enjoy.